Like My Father Before Me
by Professor Authordude
Summary: Nice one, James! he shouted. Why did Sirius call Harry by his father's name? The answer will surprise The Boy Who Lived, and give him new hope to continue on, both in life and in the war. Movie verse, no pairings.
1. Hopeless

Disclaimer- If I owned the Harry Potter books, OotP would have been more like the movie. If I owned the movies, the line around which this story is based would never have existed.

A/N- I **adored** The Order of the Phoenix movie, which surprised me because I really didn't like the book very much. The best feature of the movie was the relationship between Harry and Sirius, which was a heck of lot better than in the book. The only thing I didn't like was that one line: "Nice one, James!" because obviously, Sirius **doesn't **see Harry as James. I wrote this because that line bothered me so much. This is just the prologue. Enjoy!

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Like My Father Before Me

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"_Get away from my godson."_

"_You've done beautifully, now let me take it from here?"_

"_Nice one, James!"_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_

"_SIRIUS!"_

Harry sat up abruptly, shaking and drenched in sweat. It had been a week since he got back to Privet Drive. A week of nightmares, memories, and guilt. He could not imagine he missed Sirius any less than his parents: he had never known them, but he knew Sirius. His godfather had always been there for him, even when it put him in danger. Or got him killed.

One phrase kept playing through his head, haunting him day, night, and in between: _"Nice one, James!"_

All this time, had Sirius really only seen him as an extension of his dead father? Did he escape Azkaban to save James? Come back to England to help James? Get himself killed at the Ministry… for James?

Sirius was the only family Harry had ever known, the one person on whom he could always count, and it tore at his heart to think it had been based on a lie. _"Nice one, James!"_

Though it was high summer, Harry felt very cold; though he had just woken, very weary; though he was only fifteen, very old. And he had no hope that it would ever get better.

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A/N- Well, that was pretty depressing. Normally I write, then type, but I just whipped this off (when I should be doing my homework… or at least working on the _Teddy Chronicles_, lol). Next chapter will actually get into the story. As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome.


	2. Heartache

Disclaimer- See prologue. I own the young Death Eater.

A/N- This chapter gets into exactly _why_ Sirius called Harry by James's name. It takes place just before and during the battle in the Department of Mysteries. Enjoy!

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Like My Father Before Me

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Sirius hurtled down the hallway at top speed, the only thought in his mind getting to Harry before Voldemort did. This single-mindedness accounted for his distraction, and a Full-Body Bind came out of nowhere and stopped him in his tracks.

"Tsk, tsk, Black," said a young man, no more than eighteen years old, stepping out of the shadows. "No caution at all. The Dark Lord gives you far too much credit for your intelligence. But no matter. He wants you disposed of, and your idiotic godson. I will accomplish both myself, and my Lord will honor me above all his followers."

Even as his temper leapt at the slight to Harry, fear bloomed in his chest. Harry was in danger, yet he could do nothing to help him.

"But here's the best part, Black: I'm going to leave you here and go take care of Potter first… as you." The teenager laughed, pulling out a vial from behind his back. "Polyjuice, you see. It shouldn't be hard to impersonate you, you think he's his father anyway. And then, when I kill him, he will die knowing his godfather hates him for not being James Potter. No threat to the Dark Lord at all, broken. Then I'll come back for you. So have fun, Black."

The young man pulled out one of Sirius's hairs, dropped it into the vial, and drank it. Casting a spell of invisibility on his doppelganger, he turned and strode toward the battle.

Sirius was left with nothing but worry and heartache for companions. Worry for Harry, and what the young Death Eater would do to him. Heartache for the loss of his godson, and the way he would die. _'Harry, I don't see you as James. I could never hate you, I hope you know that. But I guess we'll be seeing each other soon enough. I'm sorry.'_

Darkness overtook him as the teenage follower of Voldemort returned momentarily to strike him over the head with something heavy and solid.

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However, things had not gone according to the young Death Eater's plan. Wanting the glory of killing Harry and Sirius to himself (so he could prove his loyalty to Voldemort), none of the other Death Eaters realized that he was not actually Sirius Black. So when Bellatrix cast _Avada Kedavra_, she thought she was killing her cousin. This had the effect of releasing Sirius from the Body-Bind and invisibility; however, he was still unconscious and hidden away from sight.

It would be another day before he would wake and begin his trip to Surrey. All mattered was Harry's safety, and he would accept no one's word but his own on this matter. He was coherent enough to realize that he would never make it to Hogwarts before term ended, especially since he did not know how long he had been unconscious. For once he blessed Dumbledore's insistence that Harry go to his relatives at least at the beginning of the summer. Hopefully he would be able to convince his godson that the other Sirius Black was an imposter.

By the dates on the newspapers in dustbins, it was a week into the summer holidays when he finally arrived at 4 Privet Drive. _'Harry, please be alright.'_

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A/N- Well, I hope that wasn't too confusing—let me know in a review if I should explain anything better. Next chapter is the part you're all waiting for: Harry and Sirius finally interact. As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome.


	3. Happiness

Disclaimer- See _Hopeless_.

A/N- Final chapter, with all the mush we've been wanting. Hooray. Just for the purposes of clarity, this takes place the same day as Harry woke up in _Hopeless_. Enjoy!

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Happiness

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"Dudley, get the door."

Grumbling, the fat teenager heaved himself off of the couch and went to the front entrance to the house. Opening the door, he shrieked and ran upstairs, clutching his backside. "Ill-mannered whale," the dark-haired man muttered, before looking sardonically at Vernon and Petunia. "May I come in, then?"

"You're that murderer from the telly!" Vernon sputtered, preparing to shove him out of the door and call the authorities, but his wife stopped him.

"It's the boy's godfather, Vernon," she said, thinning her lips in distaste, before addressing Sirius. "Whatever you've heard about us not feeding him, it's not true. I've given him three meals a day since he got back from that school, and it's really not my problem if he doesn't eat them. We didn't take kindly to being threatened by your freakish friends at the train station, but we've left him alone and fed him, so we don't want any trouble."

Sirius had really ceased to pay attention at the part where she said Harry was not eating. "Where is he?"

"Upstairs, second door on the left."

He strode up the stairs, and hesitantly knocked on the door. Immediately came a dull voice, "I'm not hungry, Aunt Petunia."

"Harry, can I come in?" He was unsure of what the imposter had done, and therefore unsure of the welcome he would receive.

However, he was completely unprepared to have the door flung open and a wand pointed in his face. "How dare you." Harry's face was contorted with rage.

"Harry, wait, I can explain—whatever you think I said to you, it wasn't me, I swear. I don't expect you to be James, honestly—"

"What are you talking about? What Sirius said to me—Sirius is DEAD!"

Blinding fury overtook Harry's face as he observed the person who had the unmitigated gall to impersonate his dead godfather barely a week after he died.

"Wh—What?"

"Where did you get your information?" Harry sneered. "Not a very good source, eh? What, were you trying to lure me out of the house and kill me by impersonating my godfather? Good plan, too bad I watched him die!"

The anger was back, but Sirius could see it hid a sea of raw pain underneath. "Harry, I…" he trailed off, then thought of a way to make his godson understand the truth. "Over the Christmas holidays… shortly before you had to leave… you told me you were afraid you were becoming like Voldemort. Do you remember?"

Harry's eyes went wide, and he lowered his wand, still looking disbelieving.

"I told you that the world isn't divided into good people and Death Eaters, and what matters is the part of ourselves we choose to act on. And then I said when all this was over, we'd be a proper family." He looked at his teenage godson, who seemed close to tears, for a moment. "I'm here, Harry."

The wand clattered to the ground. "Sirius?" the fifteen-year-old asked, his voice trembling as he took a hesitant step forward.

Sirius did not bother to reply, instead closing the distance between them and hugging Harry for all he was worth. "Ssh," he whispered as his godson cried into his shoulder. "It's alright, Harry. I'm here, I'm not going to leave. And I don't think you're James. I don't. I love you for being Harry, my amazing godson. I'm here. Everything's okay now."

Smiling even through his tears and clinging to his godfather like Sirius would be ripped away again, Harry could not help but agree. Despite the odd circumstances, they would be a proper family.

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A/N- The End! I hope everyone enjoyed! I really liked the mush at the end, surprise surprise, and I hope everyone else did too. I never planned to make this long, so I'm going to leave it with the three chapters with their alliterative titles. As always, comments and constructive criticism welcome.


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